Abstract
This article examines how the control of animal consciousness, prescribed by EC regulation no. 1099/2009 on animal welfare, fits in with the objective of industrial fluidity in cattle slaughterhouses. Based on observations made in 12 slaughterhouses and a corpus of 30 interviews with industrialists and state officials in charge of animal welfare inspections, the article outlines the difficulties posed by the implementation of this requirement, and reports on the strategies developed by actors in an attempt to reconcile production continuity with regulatory compliance. The article shows that the monitoring of animals’ state of consciousness enters into tension with the objective of industrial fluidity because it introduces uncertainty into the slaughtering process, particularly in the case of ritual practices carried out without stunning. Highlighting these standardization difficulties leads us to discuss this prescription for monitoring of cattle end-of-life from the angle of a paradoxical injunction.